A discussion of all things Lakewood and East Dallas from Advocate Magazines

May 2008

May 30, 2008

To support the The Bridge Breast Network, Facelogic Spa is having a party tonight from 5:30-7:30 p.m. with complimentary facials, skin care, drinks and hors d'oeuvres. For each skincare service booked following the event, Facelogic will donate 10 percent to The Bridge.

As a point of neighborhood interest, I first heard of Facelogic while touring a home on La Vista during the Swiss Avenue Home Tour. Facelogic business cards and promotions were placed in a couple of rooms, and when I asked about it, a docent told me the homeowner is also the owner of Facelogica Spa — so you wouldn't just be supporting The Bridge, a great cause, but also a neighborhood business owner.

I’m not really sure what this means for our neighborhood, but it doesn’t sound good to me. According to this DMN column, Wellstone Communities, title sponsor of the White Rock Marathon backed out of a multi-year agreement. "Wellstone president and CEO John Lowery said the slow residential real estate market in the Dallas area makes it difficult for his company to justify the cost of sponsorship."

I have a ticket to one of tomorrow night's 7:30 p.m. showings of Sex and the City at Studio Movie Grill. A friend of mine bought them a week ago for eight of us girls who are attending together. Even though Studio Movie Grill in Dallas is showing the movie in four theaters, according to what I just saw on its website, all of tonight's showings at 6:35 p.m. and afterward are sold out.

IT PAYS TO READ THE BLOG - THESE TICKETS ARE GONE NOW AND ONLY LASTED 3 MINUTES AFTER THE POST WENT UP! BUT JUST SO YOU KNOW TO KEEP READING IN THE FUTURE ... One of our sons has his own baseball team practice tonight, so as a thank-you to our blog readers, I'm offering up 2 front-row tickets and a reserved space parking pass (total value: $161) to tonight's Texas Rangers-Oakland A's baseball game (starts at 7:05 p.m.) to the first Back Talk reader to send an email to rwamre@advocatemag.com. These seats are between the visitor's dugout and the tarp, and if you happen to bring along a young child, you have an excellent chance of getting a free baseball: Oakland's third-base coach makes a habit of coming over to the stands between innings and handing out MLB baseballs to kids. Remember - I only have 2 tickets, so whoever asks for them first receives them. And here's a shameless plug: I have these seats for the entire season, but share them with a number of other neighborhood residents. We're always looking for new recruits to our season-ticket group for next year, so if you're interested in potentially buying 10 games from our pool next year, send me an email about that, too.

Neighborhood architect Craig Reynolds and his firm — Brown Reynolds Watford Architects Inc. — are responsible for design of the new Trinity River Audubon Center, a 120-acre site that once was home to a garbage dump. The center is the subject of a DMN story that details the eco-friendly design and construction (for example, shredded blue jeans used for insulation, exterior concrete tinted slightly green to better blend with the environment) of the center, which is scheduled to open in the fall. This project has been on the books since the original Trinity referendum, and it's good to see progress evident on at least one Trinity project now. The center is located in southern Dallas off Loop 12, and perhaps the best news is that the DMN story says 51 DISD schools are located within five miles of the center, so more than 38,000 students will have the opportunity to explore nature in a unique way as part of the center's programming.

Several years ago, I did an Advocate cover story about our neighborhood's favorite ex-fire fighter, Burton Gilliam. (Later this year, assuming all works out, we'll actually have those archives on line). Gilliam played Lyle, Slim Pickens' sidekick, in Mel Brooks' classic Blazing Saddles.

Gilliam, whose career has included Paper Moon and the original Pace picante commercial (Git a rope!), told me that Blazing Saddles was the best thing he ever worked on. And he practically waxed poetic discussing the talent involved -- Brooks, Pickens, Madeline Kahn, Gene Wilder and Harvey Korman. And yes, the word genius was used more than once.

Korman died yesterday at the age of 81. So sample this from stewielips at YouTube and have a chuckle. And that's Burton in the black hat, red shirt and black vest next to Pickens.

May 29, 2008

Good news on the DISD front: The district reports that the number of "exemplary" DISD schools is likely to nearly double this year, and the number of "recognized" schools also is likely to double, once final TAKS test numbers are tabulated. According to the district, and as reported in the Morning News today, DISD students improved over last year's performance in every subject tested except writing. All good news and indications that DISD's recent stability of leadership is beginning to have an impact on student performance. A number of neighborhood schools turn up on the top two lists, including Lakewood, Sanger, Mt. Auburn, Lee, Reinhardt, Roberts, Hexter and Stonewall elementaries.

Of course, as with any DISD story, the news isn't all good: The number
of unacceptable (the worst ranking) schools also has fallen from 26
last year to 20 right now, but that number could increase due to
tighter regulations on counting drop-outs. And as DISD president Jack Lowe pointed out, the TAKS is primarily a baseline test and the results don't necessarily demonstrate that students are college- or workforce-ready.

Bottom line, though, is that progress is being made. As discussed in earlier Back Talk posts, if DISD can keep its executive leadership together another five to 10 years, there's an excellent chance that things will become even better. Unfortunately, that's a big "if" if recent DISD political history is any indication.

Look for neighbor chef John Tesar of Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek fame on the CBS Early Show this Saturday. The segment Chef on a Shoestring will air at about 7:30 a.m. and Tesar will demonstrate a three-course meal that serves four and costs $40 to prepare.

I pondered this question last week as I grabbed lunch at the Medallion Center Applebee's, which is adorned with all kinds of neighborhood-y memorabilia from schools like Woodrow Wilson. The photos, pendants, etc. were collected and hung before the restaurant opened last year.

At one point, the Applebee's commercial jingle was "Eatin' good in the neighborhood", and it clearly likes to bill itself as a down-home gathering place. In the movie "Talladega Nights", it was spoofed as the "fancy" restaurant for the Nascar set, a joke probably appreciated by people on either side of the cuisine spectrum.

One of my favorite free summer events is a go. You may remember that in our May 2008 issue, our cover story was all about FREE STUFF. We had to cut one item before going to press because organizers at the time said the event wasn’t yet official. But now it is — Victory Park’s Get Reel Summer Movie Series is officially back. Every Tuesday all summer at 7:30 p.m., Victory will play “blockbuster classics” on those big Times Square-esque screens. This season’s lineup includes (to name a select few) Top Gun (6/3), Footloose (6/10), Jaws (7/1).

Last year the regular event got pretty popular with people scattered throughout the plaza or sitting on nearby restaurant patios. I even remember a couple nights (Star Wars, Wizard of Oz) when true movie buffs (or crazy people) came costumed (though I warn you, a Storm Trooper outfit gets pretty uncomfortable outside in August — I assume). See the whole schedule here. Plus check out these special Wednesday night screenings by the Dallas Opera.